Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine if there are significant differences in the level of impulsivity, sexual knowledge, and self-esteem between sex offenders with differing sex offenses. The participants were selected based on their participation in outpatient sex offender treatment in a southern California program. Data including general demographics, types of sexual offenses, levels of self-esteem using the RSES, impulsivity using the BIS-11, and sexual knowledge using the MFSKQ, from 44 participants was gathered and analyzed to investigate factors that contribute to sexual offending. Confidentiality was of the upmost importance given the sensitive nature of the participants and the study. It was found that convicted sex-offenders scored lower on sex-knowledge than the normative group. It was also found that the sex-offender participants scored lower in impulsiveness than maximum security felons, but also lower than norms for college males. Clearly, the relationship of difficulties with impulsiveness and commission of sex-crimes specifically, is complex and not intuitively obvious.